This invention relates to an apparatus for clinically documenting postural vices, adapted to provide monitoring of scoliotic risk subjects, as well as differential diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic stage control of scoliosis and various pathologies of the spine.
As is known, scoliosis is a permanent deformation of the rachis, which is brought forward by a pathologic bend of the spine in the front plane. Scoliotic attitudes are apparent in about 15% of children, mainly in school age. Of these, about 3% harbor an evolutive scoliosis which materializes in a scoliosis of some import (idiopathic scoliosis) requiring cruentous or incruental clinic treatment. Thus, the need arises from this situation for a large scale screening method for timely diagnosticating such affections, as well as for methods of checking a subject for timely outlining a possible evolution of the disease.
For all these analyses, it is current practice to use rachis radiography which, as is known, present more than negligible elements of toxicity.
Like arguments apply to therapeutic intervention, which in most cases of evolutive scoliosis requires the use of corsets and corrective gymnastics. These are, unfortunately, long term (on the order of some years) interventions which must be supported by constant documentation of the rachis state, also by radiography. Thus, on the one hand, the doctor requires continued documentation of the patient condition, and on the other hand, the one currently available investigation means presents extremely high rates of toxic risk. Hence, the attempt, however incompletely successful, at carrying out clinic surveys of a subjective type (manual measurement of certain parameters) or at using alternative investigation instruments (MOIREE chamber) which has characterized the activity of many research teams.